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from the only-paranoid-if-they're-not-really-out-to-get-us dept.
Yes, it's finally arriving--remote control people:
“Actually, it’s a really basic technology,” says creator Max Pfeiffer, who studies human-computer interactions at Leibniz University of Hanover in Germany.
Indeed. As cool as it sounds, the underlying tech is pretty straightforward. To dictate walkers’ routes, Pfeiffer simply attached electrodes (pilfered from a massage tool purchased on Amazon) to the thighs of 18 volunteers. When activated by a signal from a smartphone, the electrodes stimulated the sartorious, the long, thin muscle that connects the outer pelvis to the inner knee and controls the rotation of the leg. As long as the volunteer is providing forward locomotion, the sensation makes them turn.
Using a smartphone, Pfeiffer trailed his subjects as they walked through the streets with a smart phone connected to the electrodes. A push of the button on his phone caused them to veer right or left. The compulsion to turn wasn’t overwhelming. “One comment from the participants was they always had the feeling that they can just take back control and override the signal,” says Pfeiffer.
Remote control people...paging Philip K. Dick?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 21 2015, @01:17PM
The article was light on details. How strong was the control? For example, we can already control people on phone... "At the next stop light take a right. Then two blocks later turn left."
The pedestrians say they felt like they could override it. Could they actually do it?
What did it actually feel like? Pedestrians just found they started turning right unconsciously? They got the impulse to do so and acted on it?
Does anybody know any articles with more actual details rather than raw speculation of implications?
(Score: 2) by frojack on Tuesday April 21 2015, @06:33PM
“One comment from the participants was they always had the feeling that they can just take back control and override the signal,”
I'm guessing they would only feel this way if they tried and succeeded. If they failed, even once, I suspect they would stop feeling that way.
Since only the leg muscle was involved, (no brain wiring) It seems to me the participants were all willing (perhaps too willing) to cooperate with the experiment, and may have actually felt the signal and "cooperated too much", making the results somewhat questionable.
I fail to see any practical use for this. The only people I see lacking directional control are staggering drunks. Any electrical stimulation on the lower half of their body is likely to make them pee themselves, but unlikely to influence their direction.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.